


Let Me See You

by Akiko_Natsuko



Series: Reaper76 [33]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blindness, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Love, M/M, Memories, Reconciliation, Scars, Strangers, changes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-08-01 02:44:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16276325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akiko_Natsuko/pseuds/Akiko_Natsuko
Summary: It felt like coming home...everything had changed and reconciliation had been a long time coming, but the face beneath Jack's searching fingers is the one he always knew and loved.





	Let Me See You

   Gabriel’s body was warm against his side, solid and heavy and perfectly real, a reassuring presence that he had never thought that he was going to feel again. He nearly hadn’t. Their last confrontation had been bitter and angry, two old men fighting over a past that was long gone and neither of them willing to back down in the slightest. If he reached up ran his fingers over his shoulder he would feel the nasty scar that Gabriel had given him, and he knew that the other man bore than a few marks from that fight too. In the end it had been exhaustion and pain had forced them to stop, and it had been as they had sat there, bowed but not defeated that they had finally talked. It hadn’t been a pleasant conversation, insults and accusations had been traded instead of bullets, old wounds torn open, new ones made, but it had been worth it. In the end, there had been understanding. Not a complete understanding by any means, he doubted that would ever be possible especially after all this time, but enough to stop them going for each other’s throat and enough to make themselves seek each other out a few months later when they were fully healed.

   It had been a slow progress. An awkward dance between two people who had once been so in sync that it had often disturbed the people around them, but who were now little more strangers. That easiness was long gone, and more than once they had clashed, sometimes with words, sometimes with fists. But it was nothing like before and slowly, painstakingly slowly they had begun to open up to one another, finding their way slowly back to a sort of friendship that no one, not even themselves fully understood.

    It had taken even longer to timidly circle the issue of what they had been too one another, and what they could be again. Just as it had been when they were younger, it was Gabriel who had slipped first, a soft murmur of ‘Mi Sol’ in his ear when they had parted ways one day, leaving Jack flustered and confused. Then it had been a soft, almost kiss a month later and just like then Jack had found himself unable to forget those little actions and longing for more. Just as he had when they were younger, but whereas that had been a whirlwind, powered by the knowledge that war could destroy them at any moment, and this time it had been slow. They had needed that slowness, that time to breathe, to learn how to be ‘them again’ and it was worth it. It was more than worth it.  Yet there was one thing that had bothered him even as they’d gradually grown closer and closer again, and it was that thought which him had pulling away from the comforting warmth, twisting in his seat with a soft groan of protest at the movement and waiting for Gabriel to turn his head towards him. And there it was… he couldn’t stop his eyes narrowing at the mask that shielded the other man from his sight.

“Can I see you?” He asked bluntly, feeling the way that Gabriel immediately tensed at his words and he had to admit that he half expected the other man to disappear at his next words. “Without the mask?” It had taken him a while, probably longer than it should to realise that not once had Gabriel let him see him without his mask since their reconciliation. Even the very few kisses they had shared up until this point had been done with the mask barely lifted, just giving him a glimpse of Gabriel’s lips and a fleeting impression of scarred skin.

“Jack…”

“Please?” In the past that would have been enough to get the older man to cave, especially when paired with the puppy dog eyes he would use on the other man. However, that had been a different time and a different relationship, and this Gabriel was too hardened to fall for that trick, and the visor rendered the puppy dog eyes useless.

“I didn’t come through Zurich unscathed…it’s not a pretty sight,” Gabriel muttered after a few minutes of increasingly tense silence, shifting uneasily, and Jack caught the way his hands were clenched around the material of his coat, the tension in his body continuing to increase and he sighed. He had never thought that he would hear the older man sound so hesitant, almost as though he was afraid to let Jack see him, and for a moment he mourned the loss of the annoying, cocksure man who had frequently wandered through their quarters without a stich of clothing to his name, just to bring a blush to his cheeks. They had both changed, too much maybe. But…a thought occurred to him and before he could lose courage he reached up and began to remove the visor, shaking of Gabriel when the other man reached out as though to stop him. “What are you doing?”

   Jack ignored him for a moment, bracing himself for the darkness that settled over him when he pulled the visor away completely, catching the sharp intake of breath that Gabriel couldn’t quite hide at the sight of his sightless eyes. Even after all these years he had never got used to the darkness, to the way his other senses intensified the moment the red-lit world disappeared around him and he couldn’t blame Gabriel for not yet being used to the sight of his empty eyes, and not for the first time he wondered what they looked like. Were they still blue? Still, the colour of the Indiana sky that he had grown up under? Still, the colour that Gabriel had once admitted to falling in love with? He was too afraid to ask, and instead he focused on his current plan, carefully setting the visor down beside him, always within reach even though there was no danger here and he spread his arms wide as he asked softly.

“Will this be easier?”

“I…” He could hear the confusion in Gabriel’s voice and he sighed, before reaching up, using his ears to pick up on the slight movement as the other man leaned back just out of reach. “Jack?”

“Let me see you…” He pleaded, leaning forward until his fingers met the smooth material of Gabriel’s mask, gently mapping out the surface, tracing the now familiar cracks and grooves in the otherwise smooth material. “Please…I want to see you.” He heard the Gabriel gulp, and the way his breathing was speeding up and he was about to draw his fingers back, not wanting this to set things back between them when cool hands gripped his. The sudden touch made him jump, he hadn’t heard the other man move, too focused on his breathing and now he was the one breathing hard, panic curling in his stomach. He felt vulnerable like this, and he was fairly sure that it must’ve shown on his face because he heard Gabriel sigh.

“Sorry.”

   He was about to wave off the apology when the cool hands released his, fingers brushing against his cheek for a moment before retreating and then a moment later there was a soft clicking noise, the sound of catches being undone, and he froze.

“Gabe?”

“I…” The hesitant tone had returned, but then Gabriel’s hands were on his once more, twining their fingers together for a moment before he guided Jack’s hands up to his face. “Just don’t be disappointed…” Jack paused for a moment, feeling skin beneath his searching fingers, but too focused on those whispered words to move… _Never, I could never be disappointed_. The words were on the tip of his tongue, but Gabriel was shifting under his fingers and Jack swallowed back the words for now, instead letting his fingers begin to drift across the other’s face.

   It felt like coming home. There had been a time when he had known this face better than he had known his own. How many mornings had he spent ghosting his fingers over Gabriel’s features, committing them to memory? How many times had he woken from a dream about this face, each detail perfectly recalled even after years apart? Oh, it had changed, he could feel that, his fingers pausing when he encountered scarred skin, more than he had expected or more than he had hoped to find, but there was no disgust at the feel of that damaged skin. They had both lost a lot that day, changed and Gabriel had already showed him that whilst he was still adapting to the changes he had undergone, he accepted them, loved them. A shiver went through Jack as he recalled the tentative, butterfly kisses that the older man had trailed across his scars and pressed to closed lids the first time he had removed his visor and mask.

“You’re getting old Reyes,” he murmured as he tried to calm himself, gently mapping out the wrinkled skin around the other’s eyes, remembering the way Gabriel’s eyes had always crinkled when he laughed. Somehow, he doubted that these were laughter lines after everything that had happened and he mourned that fact, remembering the rare times when they had dared to talk about the future, about getting old together. That had slipped through their fingers, but they had this…they had each other... There was a moment of stunned silence, his words hanging in the air before Gabriel let out a bark of laughter, nothing like the harsh chuckle he used as Reaper, the sound warming Jack and taking him back to happier times. Maybe they were laughter lines if he could still sound like that on occasion.

“You’re one to talk Mi Luna,” Gabriel retorted, reaching up to gently tug at the white hair and Jack scowled at the reminder that he wasn’t as young as he had been, although his breath had caught at the use of the pet name. After his first slip of calling him ‘Mi Sol’ Gabriel had changed it, it was yet another thing that had changed, but he didn’t mind. After all they weren’t the same as back then, so maybe it was good that other things were changing to reflect that.

   His scowl softened to a fond smile, and he felt his way down so that he could grip the front of Gabriel’s coat and tug him closer. Before the other man could respond or protest he had returned to his exploration of Gabriel’s face, fingers gentler than before as he traced the scarred skin, noting the way it would occasionally shift and seem to melt away beneath his touch without comment as he gathered his courage. Cautiously, not wanting to push too far and ruin the moment he leant closer, and this time his lips followed his searching fingers. Gentle kisses, ones that barely touched the skin, but he felt the way Gabriel jolted at each touch and he paused for a moment, waiting silently.

“D-don’t stop…”

   Jack smiled, softer still as he nodded, brushing their noses together for a moment before stealing a quick kiss, hearing the soft growl that followed as he pulled back too soon and returned to his previous ministrations, worshipping every inch of the other’s face at his own pace, committing the new scars and lines to memory. Gabriel was just impatient as ever, because Jack was nowhere near being finished when he found himself being pulled into a bruising kiss and he grumbled under his breath, even as he melted into the kiss, because this…this also felt like home, and his eyes were suspiciously damp when they pulled apart and Gabriel rested their foreheads together.

“Jack…?” _Are you disappointed? Have I changed too much?_ He could hear the unspoken questions in the soft query, the uncertainty that had seeped back in despite the heated kiss and he reached up, cupping Gabriel’s face and pulling him closer until he could feel their breath mingling.

“You’re beautiful…”


End file.
